Hi, my name is Don!

December 7, 2005May 29, 2006

I hate you, you rich bastard!

Allow me to give you my definition of rich. If you’re making enough money to be able to live on your own, buy food and entertainment, that’s rich. I’d say a round figure like, $2000 per month. Let’s break that down. If you lived on your own, the average cost of rent is about $900 a month and chances are, the utilities bills are included in the price. Food would cost approximately $50 a week, which should be more than enough to keep the fridge full every week. And then there are the basic necessity like, internet, phone line and cable tv which would come out to roughly $50 each so that’s $150 per month for all three. So far the total comes up to $1250 for the month and if you’re making $2000 per month, you’ve still got $750 left in your pocket to do what you want.

Recently, I saw a friend’s paycheque because he looked it over right in front of me. He paycheque was for $1001 and some change. He was swearing up and down and saying shit like, “What the hell is $1000 gonna get me, I need more money!” He’s getting $1000 bi-weekly and he’s telling me he needs more, meanwhile I make about $300-$400 bi-weekly. I wanted to slap him upside the head, right there and then.

First of all, he lives at home with his parents, so if he has to pay for rent, it’s not gonna be that much. He doesn’t pay for internet because he’s using someone else’s wireless signal and I don’t think he’s got a cell phone bill to pay for either. So I’m thinking, what the hell is he complaining about? He’s making five times as much as I’m making and he’s complaining that he needs more.

It’s these kinds of people that makes me mad. How much more money do you need? If you’re making enough to get by, that should be good enough. But if you’re making more than enough to get by and you think you need more, that’s just down right selfish. There are other people in the world who aren’t making enough to get by, I can understand their need to complain, but don’t tell me you need more money when you’re making five times as much as I am. People these days don’t understand the true value of a dollar. It’s all taken for granted as if it’s nothing. I try to save every penny I can and so far I’m doing a good job. I even try to help out when I can, even if it’s just some financial advice because not a lot of people understand how to handle their money.

I think that once you start making the big bucks, you start to think like you’re rich and you don’t give much thought about the future. You’re in that state of mind that believes you’re set for life because you’ve got this high paying job. A friend of mind had a high paying job and what I’ve noticed him doing was that he was always going out to eat. That can get pretty expensive in the long run. It was costing him $20 every time he went out, which was often. He was acting as if money was no issue to him. At the time, that was true. He didn’t have to worry about too many bills. It wasn’t till later on that I’ve notice what his bills were actually costing him. $100 for a cell phone bill was just ridiculous. I’ve told him of the currently plan he’s on, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I told him, that he’s limited to fifty day-time minutes and if anyone calls him during the day time, use the phone at work to call them back, that’s the whole point of caller id. But no matter what I told him, it didn’t seem like he was listening. And because the cell phones were on a family plan, it costed me as well and I can’t afford to be paying more than $50 for a cell phone.

I think that rich people should keep their status on the down low. There’s no need to show that you can afford something expensive. If I was rich, I wouldn’t want to tell anyone. You know how many charities would be knocking on my door? Lots of them and I don’t trust them. Rich people are the ones who have the money to change this world for the better, but it doesn’t seem like they’re willing to do it unless it’s beneficial to them in some way. They say that money can’t buy happiness, but I beg to differ. I think money can buy you anything in this world. Everything has a price.